


The Dragon Which Slays Love

by whiteblankpage



Category: Glee
Genre: Jealousy, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-12
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-04-09 00:34:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4327083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteblankpage/pseuds/whiteblankpage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: “Jealousy, the dragon which slays love under the pretense of keeping it alive.” - Havelock Ellis.  Sam meets Adam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dragon Which Slays Love

Sam’s never quite gotten the hang of the way you’re meant to crush jealousy in an iron fist of self-control. They way you’re meant to squeeze until it’s powder, until it’s nothing, until you open your palm and forget why you were so angry in the first place.

He’s definitely clenching his fists now, as he watches a guy who could be his cousin wrap his arm around Kurt’s waist. He’s sick with the feeling, teeth grinding down until his jaw aches and Quinn wrestles the red plastic cup from his grip. 

“Cool the crazy eyes,” she murmurs, taking his hand in hers. Her nails are sharp, painted in cool mint and pointed in more ways than one. “Now isn’t the time for petulant sexual self-discoveries.”

“I’m fine,” Sam says, licking his lips. Quinn doesn’t let him tug his hand away, her gaze leaf-pale but firm.

“If by fine you mean choking on jealousy, then yes, I can see just how  _fine_  you are.” She shakes her hair back over one shoulder. “I mean, Kurt did bring home a much more cultured and experienced man who could have been you in another lifetime but I’m sure there’s nothing about that that bothers you.”

He must look awful because the severe line of her mouth softens, curls up at the corners in consolation.

“Just don’t do something you’ll regret,” she says, kissing his cheek. “Kurt’s not someone you want to lose and forcing his hand is only going to end badly.”

She leaves him to delve further into Sugar Motta’s house party, moving surely away from Santana’s darkened gaze. Sam’s eyes follow the way Kurt sways to the music, the way Adam hooks his arm around Kurt’s neck, kisses his jaw.

Against Quinn’s advice, Sam seeks out another drink.

It’s Adam who finds him alone in the empty upstairs. Sam’s looking at pictures of Sugar and her father, Sugar and her mother but never the three of them together.

He drops the picture frame, cringing as the glass cracks, when the door opens behind him. 

“Oh- sorry. I can’t seem to find a washroom?”

Sam shrugs slowly, flipping the picture frame face down. “Keep going down the hall.”

Adam doesn’t move, stepping inside the frosted pink bedroom. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced. I’m-”

“I know who you are,” Sam says, hard and loud. He swallows thickly. “Everyone knows who you are.”

A tired shadow falls over Adam’s cheery smile. “I see. I take it you’re a friend of Blaine’s?”

“Blaine?” he asks, mind foggy with booze and bad thoughts. Blaine’s been out of Ohio since the start of the summer, checking out apartments in California or Chicago- wherever he decided to slink off to after both Kurt and NYADA turned him down flat. “We were bros, yeah. I’m Sam.”

Adam’s shoulders set. “Then you’ll forgive me for wanting to avoid another round of badmouthing. Your cohort, Tina has been laughing in my ear all night about the wonder that was Kurt and Blaine.”

Sam feels like an ass.

“No, man, look I’m not pissy about Blaine,” he says, holding up his hands. He gets distracted by the way they blur. “I mean, he kind of went crazy that one time and asked Kurt to marry him at Regionals. He’s lucky Finn didn’t deck him.”

 Adam’s eyes go wide after a moment's scrutiny. “Oh I see. You’re angry about _Kurt_.”

Sam’s never felt so transparent, held up against the sunlight. 

“So what happened between the two of you? Blaine?” Adam frowns. “You have your own personal coffee cup at Kurt’s house but he’s never mentioned dating anyone other than Blaine.”

“ _Nothing_ ,” Sam says, his voice tight with regret. “Nothing happened. At all.”

Adam steps back, arms crossing as he leans against the cotton candy coloured walls. He looks Sam over, eyes lingering on the messy golden fringe hanging in his eyes, the loose-fitting pants and nervous fingers. He sighs, and speaks.

“You think you’re the only one who can see it?” Adam huffs a short, incredulous breath, tugs at his olive-trimmed vest. “You  _terrify_  me.”

They’re a bittersweet dichotomy, standing together in Sugar’s glossy bedroom; Sam yearning to be in Adam’s place while Adam fears of taking Sam’s. He wants to hate him, wants to shout that he was the original, that Adam hasn’t made him obsolete just yet.

He wants to give the man a hug, tap his misplaced bottle of beer to Adam’s knuckles and sigh about the way Kurt can devastate someone without even trying.

They keep their silence instead, neither of them willing to bow out.

“I should go, I don’t want to keep Kurt waiting.” Adam nods to him, wordless with the way he says  _I outlasted a teenage fantasy with a gold-plated ring in his pocket, I won’t let you slip into my place so easily._

The empty room spins as Sam grips the edge of a nearby writing desk with white-knuckle fists. He feels  _jaded_  with everything he’s not allowed to say. 

-

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted: april2013


End file.
